In the new century,
Tumring will be the place that changes before anywhere else from subsistence
farming, working in different areas all the time, expending a lot of labour,
to cultivating with security.

00:15:47.80

Title “Rubber Tree Dam
kasou”

00:16:19.80

Title “Tumring Rubber
Plantation”

00:17:32.30

Rubber Company CEO
This company is called Sokphaknica Investment Pro. Co. Ltd.

00:17:41.10

The company wants to
expand to grow more crops in Tumring but we cannot find any more unused land.

00:17:50.75

Title “Rubber Company
CEO”

00:17:56.30

In fact, the favourable
land to plant rubber belongs to the local households.

00:18:05.60

If we get help from the
government and Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, we think that
we can get that land to plant rubber trees.

00:18:18.10

But it seems impossible to
obtain that land from the people because on that land they have their fields.

00:18:26.50

It’s a shame, I do not
want them to have those fields, they will discard the old cleared land and
move on to clear new land.

00:18:40.00

They cannot make money
from doing that.

00:18:42.30

They do not have clear
goals in their life.

00:19:50.10

Mau Chanthoern
Losing Prey Lang means we lose our livelihood.

00:19:54.00

All the people here depend
on the forest.

00:19:59.90

If we work for the rubber
company, when we get sick we don’t get paid.

00:20:05.20

It’s fine while you’re
healthy, but then you’re left with nothing.

00:20:09.90

The forest gives us the
freedom to support ourselves independently.

00:20:19.40

If we cannot protect Prey
Lang, I am afraid that my son will be a labourer at the rubber plantation.

00:20:26.30

I want to protect the
forest because I really do not want my son to be a labourer.

00:20:33.20

I don’t want that.

23:59:32.70

(Foreign language).
Chanthoern talking to her son.

00:20:44.30

My husband and I always
argue with each other.

00:20:47.70

He doesn’t want me to
patrol the forest.

00:20:50.90

The way he thinks is so
different from me.

00:20:55.80

I was married to my
husband for a year.

00:21:01.50

Last year, when I was
three months pregnant, he asked to separate.

00:21:08.90

I was angry at first,
because I loved him but his love wasn’t true.

00:21:15.20

But later I considered it
and I think we just had different values.

00:21:24.70

Because of the work that I
do, some people love me, and some people hate me but the greater proportion
hate me.

00:21:31.40

The loggers hate me
because I always confiscate the wood they cut down.

00:22:01.00

Marcus Hardtke
Basically for the local population, partly indigenous people, they lose out.

00:22:06.30

And in the past they could
avoid the worst and they just went further into the hinterland and continued
to live there.

00:22:14.10

But this is getting
difficult because there’s just no so much land and forest available anymore.

23:59:50.70

The new concessions
especially in Prey Lang are using the same exploitation model as Tumring.

23:59:50.70

And it's even the same
people doing it.

23:59:50.70

00:22:54.89

This is probably the
biggest threat to the country.

00:22:57.09

This is certainly a threat
to stability.

00:23:02.59

And so far we haven’t seen
the government really realizing that.

23:59:50.70

00:23:07.01

Chut Wutty
As soon as one company had finished clearing the forest, another one came.

00:23:14.41

CRCK rubber company has
not yet released any official documents to show the people living around Prey
Lang forest even though those people’s resin trees were cut by the company.

00:23:31.60

No one has seen their
documents.

00:23:34.60

So far more than 400,000
resin trees have been felled.

00:23:38.80

But have the communities
received compensation?

00:23:42.20

Not even a single person.

00:23:46.40

The loggers cut far too
much.

00:23:48.90

They cut the young trees;
they cut in the conservation areas.

00:23:53.10

There’s no protection of
resources here.

00:23:55.40

It’s anarchy.

00:24:07.80

(Mao Chanthoern)
On November 7th we set off to campaign in Prey Lang forest.

00:24:16.00

500 people came from four
provinces.

00:24:20.40

Our purpose was to enter
the company site, and to establish how much forest has been cleared, and
whether it’s legally permitted.

00:24:29.30

At the company gate, the
women stood firm at the front.

00:24:34.00

If we didn’t dare protest
we risk losing everything.

00:24:41.40

(Man)
Hang on… Stop, stop!

00:24:44.40

(Man)
Wait a minute, the boss will come and sort the problem out.

00:24:55.10

(Man)
Don’t make trouble or it will be more than you can handle.

00:25:10.00

(Man)
Stop! You can’t enter!

00:25:12.70

(Foreign language).
Shouting

00:25:42.80

Chut Wutty
The community decided to burn the timber once and for all so that loggers stop
profiting from cutting the forest.

00:25:49.20

The people are extremely
upset. They love the forest.

00:25:54.10

But they have no choice.
They have to destroy the timber.

00:26:05.90

(Man)
A bit higher.

00:26:11.20

(Man)
A little bit more.

00:26:33.60

Chut Wutty
Initially I didn’t expect them to target me.

00:26:37.70

But when the military
arrived, they came up to me from behind.

00:26:50.80

(Man)
If you’re going to arrest him, arrest all of us.

00:27:10.90

(Man)
Stop those cameras!

00:27:13.80

(Man)
Who pays you to do this?

00:27:16.00

(Man)
You have guns but we have nothing so which of us is powerful?

00:27:19.50

(Man)
We have no guns – why do you bring guns here?

00:27:22.80

(Man)
We are just defending ourselves, you can’t attack us like this.

00:27:40.50

Chut Wutty
Luckily the community immediately came to help me.

00:27:45.90

Without them I would have
been in trouble.

00:28:17.00

We’ll protect the forest together
no matter what.

00:28:19.70

It can’t get worse than
this.

00:28:25.70

We’ll leave early in the
morning.

00:28:33.40

The community saw the
cruel actions of armed officers in confronting unarmed local people.

00:28:46.90

They are armed to protect
people not to help businessmen log the forest of our country.

00:29:07.30

As you might have seen,
this morning I went out to encourage the teams who volunteer to protect Prey
Lang.

00:29:17.70

They were happy to be part
of the operation.

00:29:20.80

They gave me a blessing
for protection while I’m here.

00:29:24.70

They said that without me
they would have had problems.

00:29:28.60

They said they placed
their hope in me.

00:29:31.80

This is why I cannot give
up my efforts.

00:29:37.90

If I don’t do the work, no
one else would do it.

00:29:40.60

People are too afraid.

00:29:42.90

So I have to keep going.

00:29:52.90

Seng Sokheng
After the attack, when we were going home, we found that the government
officials sent a force of military and police to some places along the road.

00:30:08.90

They were waiting to catch
Chut Wutty and the foreigners with him.

00:30:15.80

Then they let us and the
community activists go.

00:30:20.80

After hearing this, I
informed Wutty that we had heard they were hunting for him.

00:30:27.90

I said, “You should escape
to a safe place”.

00:30:50.20

Sam Chanty
I was selling fruit and crushed ice when he first saw me.

00:30:53.90

He came over to buy some
water, so we met.

00:30:58.40

He told his parents to ask
permission for him to marry me.

00:31:05.60

I sold some land that I inherited
from my family to build our house because he didn’t earn much money.

00:31:14.20

He said to me, “What are
you doing buying new wood?”

00:31:19.80

He didn’t like buying new
timber cut from the forest so he was angry with me.

00:31:25.00

But I wanted beautiful
wood for our house, and I had money to buy it.

00:31:34.90

After a while as his wife,
I started to understand him more.

00:31:42.00

We got along and could
live together.

00:31:47.90

When I heard that there
was a conflict and that he was being threatened, when he got home, I asked
him whether he was scared.

00:32:04.10

He said he wasn’t, because
he was doing the right thing and that gave him courage.

00:32:19.10

Right after the attack,
the US Embassy offered to send him to America and protect him.

00:32:35.90

But he refused because he
loves his country.

00:32:40.00

After he refused, they
made another offer that if he wanted to stay in the country they would pay
for him to have a bodyguard.

00:32:56.90

He didn’t like that.

00:32:58.10

He liked being
independent.

00:33:01.90

I was worried but he said
he was fine.

00:33:21.40

Marcus Hardtke
He had to be a one-man army.

00:33:23.00

He had to do the work on
the ground - the organizing, patrolling.

00:33:26.50

And he also had to do the
policy work and inform the world and try to find new alliances.

00:33:36.90

You know he was never
really into this kind of publicity.

00:33:41.80

He just wanted to get the
job done.

00:33:43.70

This was what made him
effective from the ground.

00:33:48.10

And he was not afraid to
talk.

00:33:50.60

And in Cambodia now the
major NGOs and many of the donor representatives and (UN agencies).

00:33:59.50

They are simply too afraid
to talk – to even talk about these problems.

00:34:04.90

That’s why he became more
prominent.

00:34:13.50

Sam Chanty
He didn’t name the corporation but he told me there were people offering him bribes
if he would stop reporting corruption to foreign media.

00:34:34.90

He didn’t know who was
behind it.

00:34:39.10

He was offered bribes many
times but he refused.

00:34:43.60

Then my husband started investigating
illegal yellow vine harvesting.

00:34:49.70

He started writing reports
on that.

00:35:19.30

Olesia Plokhil
This is a creeper plant that has really bright yellow on the inside.

00:35:23.90

If you cut it you look at
either end and it’s very kind of a really fluorescent yellow.

00:35:29.40

It’s quite beautiful.

00:35:32.00

Wutty and I started
talking in the end of March.

00:35:35.70

And as we continue to talk
a lot of our conversations focused on his work in illegal logging and the
areas in which he was working and trying to prevent illegal loggers.

00:35:43.80

And one of those areas
that he actually kept really talking about was the Cardamom Mountains.

00:35:48.40

He was one of the few
people and probably the only person that I could go to for you know concise,
factual, you know unbiased, really truthful information.

00:35:57.50

And he said, “You know I
really respect what journalist do but you know you’re on your phone a lot,
you’re inside a lot.”

00:36:02.80

He said, “Come see what is
actually happening on the field.”

00:36:08.60

But Wutty was convinced
that yellow vine was actually being produced en masse for a drug production.

00:36:13.20

And this was something
that Wutty was very passionate in exposing.

00:36:19.40

That morning we were not
really talking much about illegal logging.

00:36:22.20

There was no real stress.

00:36:23.70

It was a nice morning and
we were just enjoying the Cardamom’s and looking out and thinking about what
the future would hold for that area.

00:36:32.70

And then finally, around
two hours after we had left Pursat, the south of Pursat province and headed
south towards Koh Kong, Wutty abruptly stopped the car and said, “Okay, we’re
here”.

00:36:45.10

And I said, “Where are
we?”

00:36:52.30

(Man)
Yes, this way. It’s the right road.

00:36:56.70

Stop here!

00:37:00.90

Marcus Hardtke
That’s a lot.

00:37:14.30

Olesia Plokhil
Wutty was very tense as soon as we got to the site.

00:37:17.30

And it was a way that I
haven’t seen him before.

00:37:19.20

So as soon as he stopped
the car, he said, “This is an illegal yellow vine factory.”

00:37:23.20

“We have to make this
quick.”

00:37:24.10

“Let’s go.”

00:37:24.70

“We’re here”

00:37:25.20

You know, “Grab your
notepads.”

00:37:26.40

“Let’s go.”

00:37:26.90

And even when we are
walking through the clearing, he looked at us and he said, “You’re too slow.”

00:37:33.50

“Aren’t you journalists?”

00:37:34.40

“Let’s go.”

00:37:34.80

“You know you’re on the
job.”

00:37:37.20

We walked across the road.

00:37:37.80

Wutty spoke to a guy
there.

00:37:40.10

And there was military
hammocks also around and some scattered industrial tools.

00:37:44.80

And we walked through
there and we saw a big stack of yellow vine.

00:37:51.40

Marcus Hardtke
And there was enough time to radio in the bigger guys and asked what to do
and take this opportunity to make trouble.

00:38:02.50

They must have known who
he was.

00:38:11.10

Olesia Plokhil
And then all of a sudden the guy in beige military fatigues puts up his hand
and kind of wave overs – motions over something.

00:38:21.60

And all of us turned and
simultaneously we all see the same thing.

00:38:24.90

And it’s two motor bikes
coming toward us blurring from the haze of the sun.

00:38:29.40

And all three of them have
AK-47.

00:38:47.60

Finally they said, “We
want your cameras”.

00:38:49.30

Then they yanked one of
the cameras out of our hands.

00:38:56.20

I hear “Koh Kong, Koh
Kong”.

00:38:57.40

So it seems to me like
what’s happening is they will allot – you know they will allow us to leave
the site if we follow them or they follow us to the military police
headquarters in Koh Kong.

00:39:07.00

We get into the car.

00:39:08.20

Wutty turns the key and it
doesn’t start.

00:39:13.30

Wutty looked at me and
said, “I told you we should have been out of here”.

00:39:16.60

“I told you, we should
have been fast.”

00:39:18.50

And he wasn’t blaming me
but he was almost explaining like – it was almost like “I’m sorry we got
fucked.”

00:39:26.70

Wutty goes and lifts the
hood of the car and he tells me to come with him.

00:39:30.80

And he shows me three
wires.

00:39:32.80

And he said – he says, “Hold
these together”.

00:39:34.30

And I’m thinking, “Hold
these together?”

00:39:36.40

You know, I mean is this
dangerous?

00:39:38.40

And he says, “No, I’m
going to start the engine.”

00:39:40.10

“You’re going to hold this
together and you’re going to push them down on to some metal – metal piece”.

00:39:44.80

So Wutty is inside the car
now and I pushed the wires together, put them on the thing and the engine
starts.

00:39:51.80

And so I’m lowering the
hood.

00:39:53.30

My hands are shaking.

00:39:53.50

(Unintelligible) and
scrambles unto the back seat.

00:39:57.20

Wutty is yelling, “Let’s
go, let’s go, let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!”

00:39:59.90

I reached for the hand of
the door handle.

00:40:01.60

And as soon as I reached
for the hand handle, I heard shots.

00:40:05.40

And I ducked immediately
because I think that there will be more shooting.

00:40:08.40

And I ducked and I
crouched there for about 2 seconds and then I get back up and I don’t think
about running.

00:40:17.10

I just ran.

00:40:22.90

Wutty’s been shot.

00:40:35.00

And as we turn our bodies
and heads toward the scene which was about 100 feet away from us.

00:40:44.50

I saw a military police
officer – one of the military police officers lying motionless on the ground
next to the left hand front tire of the car.

00:41:03.00

Immediately I think, you
know, it’s a cover up.

00:41:37.70

Cheuy Oudormreaksmey
When someone called and said he had died I couldn’t believe it.

00:41:45.40

I felt devastated.

00:41:57.40

About three hours before
his death, he called me and said he was going to try and finish today and
come back.

00:42:07.30

I feel such regret when I
think of him saying this.

00:42:24.80

This is him at O’Saom.

00:42:30.90

These are the photos he
took of the forest there on the last day.

00:42:39.60

I think someone intended
to kill him.

00:42:42.50

I think it was someone
related to the timber company.

00:42:47.00

They did not want him
investigating and taking photos.

00:42:52.20

Then the conflict mounted
and they asked the military to kill him.

00:43:01.60

He looks so angry.

00:43:06.70

Because this man was
blocking the door to the car.

00:43:11.00

His expression is so
angry.

00:43:15.00

That’s the last photo in
his camera, there aren’t any more.

00:44:07.50

At first I thought that he
did not think about our family because his life was his work.

00:44:14.90

If he started work on
something, he was determined to succeed.

00:44:22.80

He didn’t rest much.

00:44:26.20

He would go to sleep at 1
am and wake up at 3 or 4 am.

00:44:31.00

He thought a lot about
things.

00:44:34.80

His life was not carefree
like other people’s.

00:44:43.00

The burden of caring for
the family has come to me.

00:44:48.10

Without him, my family
will find it very difficult because he was the foundation of our life
together.

00:44:59.70

But I am not hopeless, I
will try to carry on and I will struggle through somehow, even though I could
not be the same as him in order to care for my family.

00:45:30.90

Sam Chanty
Whenever he came home, I told him to be careful, not to get too close to the
military police because they were hired by the logging company to guard the
timber.

00:45:57.90

It could have been In
Ratana who shot him, or Ran Boroth.

00:46:02.20

But we don’t know which of
them fired.

00:46:02.20

Choun Phirom
A day after the funeral, I heard on the news that they’d caught one of the
men who shot him, Ran Boroth.

00:46:32.90

Right after, I heard that
a committee was created to investigate my uncle’s shooting.

00:46:42.40

Witnesses were being
questioned.

00:46:47.20

To this day, I would say
the case has been at a standstill.

00:47:08.85

Title “Ly Kosal Ran
Boroth's defense lawyer”

00:47:15.70

Ly Kosal
In Ratana got his gun and fired to scare Wutty away from the site.

00:47:23.10

So at that time my client
Ran Boroth saw what was happening and worried that further gunfire might lead
to injury of the journalists so he shot In Ratana in the chest, killing him.

00:47:45.70

If my client hadn’t taken
control of this situation, it is possible that the two journalists could have
been killed.

00:47:59.20

Olesia Plokhil
There’s a lot of things that don’t match up though.

00:48:01.10

There were at least four
shots fired.

00:48:04.20

One at Wutty, two at the
military police officer and one bullet that was found lodged in the hood of
the car.

00:48:09.60

And there were less
casings and not found.

00:48:11.50

The order of certain
things was not the way it was supposed to be.

00:48:14.50

Again the scene was
tampered with.

00:48:15.90

The military police
officer’s body was moved.

00:48:18.70

So there’s a lot of
uncertainty.

00:48:19.90

The – the official
investigation, there was four possible scenarios.

00:48:29.50

I think the point of the
story is that a man died because he was standing up for what is truly his in
the Cambodia and constitution.

00:48:38.50

And – and in the UN declaration
of Human Rights.

00:48:41.70

And – and he died for
doing the right thing.

23:59:12.50

(Transcript) It was widely
assumed that In Ratana shot Chut Wutty.

23:59:12.50

Ran Boroth was convicted
of manslaughter.

23:59:12.50

He was released two weeks
after his trial.

00:49:22.50

Mau Chanthoern
We got a call to tell us that Wutty died at Koh Kong.

00:49:27.50

For us he was a hero
because of his work in Prey Lang.

00:49:31.50

We feel so sad that he
died alone in the wilderness.

00:49:47.40

After Wutty was killed,
our community was threatened.

00:49:50.40

They said, “Aren’t you
afraid of dying like Wutty did?”

00:49:56.80

But we are not afraid.

00:50:16.00

(Man)
Quiet, quiet!

00:50:16.00

So, shall we read this
report then?

00:50:16.00

The illegal loggers who
cut timber in Prey Lang forest are accused by the Prey Lang Network
representative who states that the illegal loggers whose names are given
above.

00:50:38.20

Those loggers paid bribes
to the Forest Administration at Tumring.

00:50:45.00

All the loggers are named
but I’m the only one who is named making the accusation.

00:50:50.00

It’s a disaster.

00:50:51.20

Friends, this is what we
need to discuss.

00:50:57.00

(Man)
Let’s not put your name.

00:50:59.80

It’s from the whole Prey
Lang Network.

00:51:02.90

Let’s change it.

00:51:02.90

I can’t sleep I’m so
worried.

00:51:05.50

We made too many
accusations.

00:51:10.40

Do they want to kill me?

00:51:26.30

Mau Chanthoern
If we don’t patrol we will die when the forest disappears, so we risk our
lives to defend it.

00:51:33.10

I would be glad to die
protecting the forest.

00:51:38.70

Better than that the forest
is destroyed.

00:51:48.60

Choun Phirom
I am Chut Wutty.

00:51:54.60

Seng Sokheng
I am Chut Wutty.

00:51:58.70

Cheuy Oudormreaksmey
I am Chut Wutty.

00:52:04.50

Mau Chanthoern
I am Chut Wutty.

00:51:07.70

Protector of Prey Lang
forest.

00:52:20.92

(Transcript)
Globally, two environmental activists are killed each week. Over the last
decade the rate of killing has doubled.